..Poland to Mongolia and back on XT600

Hi!!
This is going to be a report of a ride on a XT600 from Poland to Mongolia and hopefully back
But before you start reading there are several things I need to tell you.

1. I am a terrible photographer. I can't take any good photos. I actually hardly can take any
2. I ride XT 600 but I am probably the worst offroad rider ever. To be honest with you I hate off road riding so DO NOT expect any pictures of a wild nature and so on. Also see point number 1.
3. Not only that I can't take a pictures or can't ride off road but I am also a terrbile mechanic. At least due to that point reading my story might be interesting for you in case something goes wrong with the bike
4. I decided to take the most boring way to do this - only via Russia. No "-stans". And I decided NOT to use transsibirian railway. I wanted to feel the size of Russia. So there will be many days on the road and very little time in Mongolia. Of course if I can get there
5. I am a low budget traveller.

I will try to describe every single day separately. Maybe this way you will find out how stupid it is to take so boring road

I was supposed to start on 3rd of July but somehow I realised I do not have my visas. Ok, after one week (another D-day) I had my visas but felt bad vibration. This is not a joke, I always follow my intuition. So after all I started on 11th of July 2010 AD.

If you accept at least some of the things I warned you about - you are welcome to read!

Ok, everything is ready. I packed myself today, bike is ready, I am ready. Of course I should be doing other things instead of travelling but it can wait.
I changed the oil last night somewhere around 2AM so I suppose my bike is ready. Now it has 93503 km, I bought it 4 years ago with 34814km and that bike never failed me.

This is me with the most arrogant creature I ever had a pleasure with. I am the one in yellow t-shirt. Will definately miss it though

I said goodbye to my mom and my brother and hit the road.

I had to meet a friend of mine, Yasio. I am not going to put here a picture of everyone who I said goodbye to, but these are the ones who helped me a lot with this trip. I hope Yasio will not get too angry for posting here a picture of him only in pants

So I went to Slovakia which is a fantastic country. I slept by the Spissky Hrad castle.
Some pictures of Slovakia:

The best way how to sleep. You don't waste time for packing the tent and so on.

Quite heavy clouds, no sun, some rain. I finally entered Ykpaiha. Price fuel is approximately 0,75 euro for 1 liter.

Around 25 km after I entered Ykpaiha militia guys stopped me because I ignored STOP sign. Of course I am polish so I did not pay them anything They listened to my monologue (it was something like "..because I am poor student.. because I am going so far away.. because I just started my trip.." etc.) and let me go. Never pay them!!

When you enter Lvovska oblast you have to show your documents. These guys were very cool. They offered me finding a wife in Ukraine. I will consider this becuase girls in Ukraine are VERY nice.

In the evening it started raining like shit and did it seemed it won't stop any soon so I broke my rules and went into a cheap hotel. Damn, I suck. I made sulfur. But I had to make my very special exercises. I have a mission this year
Distance: 421 km

Sambor - I am currently in your city I entered Poland yesterday, stopped in Cracow and will leave tomorrow probably. In case it won't rain too much of course.

Damn, it's cold! Have to wear more clothes. I noticed my right glove is about to say goodbye.

After few seconds it looked again as a new one but it is so tight it takes almost one minute to put it on. What a sulfur.

There were some really heavy clouds on the horizon and I am usually too lazy to put on my sexy suit for rain so I just stopped my bike and watched it for about 30 minutes. I love watching clouds! According to my calculation it should avoid me somehow.

After 30 minutes of watching clouds suddenly changed their direction and went straight on me! What a sulfur. It rained like shit.
I build my tent right by small lake near Zhytomyr. It is a city located on a road from Lvov to Kyjiv.

Going to Kyjiv. Heavy traffic but not that bad though. I have no more hryvnas but on one gas station they accept euro. After passing Kyjiv I want to go to Charkow (Kharkov). I thought it's so close but it actually is +400km. Damn.

This is another boring day on the road. Luckily for me I like being on the road no matter how boring it is.

On one gas station they were selling baseball bats. Only one question - what for? :huh

I slept again without tent. But I did not know how nasty mosquitos they have here. My face was all red and my nose was big as a pear. I looked in the mirror (motorcycle mirror!! i do not carry any other mirror than that ) and I looked like.... well I don't know. So I got up at 3:30AM of polish time (in Ykpaiha it is 4:30AM) and start riding before there was a sun on the horizon. What a fantastic feeling!!
Militia guys were curious what kind of idiot travels on a motorcycle that early so I was stopped two times. One of them asked: "Did you drink?"

So I went to Kharkov city. It is a very nice city. I usually hate cities that have more than 50000 inhabitants because they are big and not always cool to ride in. So if I say I like a big city then probably it could be nice For example I really do love Odessa. This is a strange thing because city is quite big but it is fantastic place and I feel there very good. I don't know why. Kharkov:
In Charków there is a cementary of polish officers killed by NKWD. Several thousands of them are burried here.

..and only 1km from this place there was a monument of golodomor (great famine) that Stalin "gave" Ukrainians. MANY of them died. There were very few pictures of that but quite depressing.

After that I went to Belgorod in Russia. Border was quite ok. It took around 2 hours. They helped me with filling the forms.

RUSSIA!!

Roads are good, fuel is even cheaper than in Ukraine. What else do I need?
I slept by the gas station.

I got up righ after the sun showed on the horizon. Strange - there were no mosquitos at night. Ok, so I'm going to Voronezh (big and ugly) and take the direction to Saratov. I thought it's close and it is nearly 500km!! Damn.

It is very hot. I am on a diet - I consume thousands of snickers+sprite.

During the day it was even a bit too hot for riding so I made couple hours brake, during which I did my very special top secret exercises and then I went on.

Found a place to sleep at a gas station. I even had a security for only 50 rubles.

I got up again before there was a sun on the horizon. It's going to be another boring day on the road. In the very morning it's a big pleasure to ride as there is no big heat. I pass Saratov, Samara etc. Road is boring like shit.

I am practicing my singing. I can't sing, but I want to learn it. Luckily no one can hear me while riding. I stopped in one restaurant and..